When the animals meet
by Allemande
Summary: Call it a symbol, call it a highly intellectual metaphor, call it simply madness... looking forward to your interpretations ;-)


_In case you were wondering, people. Yes, I am insane ;-)_

When the animals meet 

At some dark hour, we don't know when, it is when our eyes have long closed to embrace the peacefulness of sleep, in some place we would never even dream of to exist - that is where the animals meet. They meet quietly, unnoticedly, since they know that they actually do not talk to each other in the daylight, or that is what we think. And they do not want to disturb our mind's ease by possibly troubling us with things that we do not understand. So they meet in a hidden place. It is always at the same hour they come together, always on the same clearing, and they are always in the same mood. 

"Oh my God." The kangaroo hobbled around nervously. The eagle, sitting on a treestump nearby, opened one eye to look at him. "What's wrong, kangaroo?" 

"Hyena. She'll kill me. I don't have the food she asked me to get." The kangaroo grew even more nervous. "But then, I will probably never do right in her eyes." 

"Don't you know that your low self-esteem lights her flames even more", the eagle commented and, contented with himself, started to do some flight practises. He'd been sitting too much in the last days. 

The kangaroo blinked. He did not really understand the eagle's wisdom, but then he never really got anything. 

A "Hyah hyah hyah", was approaching them. The eagle lifted his head and put on a thoughtful look. "The hyena is coming", he finally spoke and lost himself in profound meditation again. 

The kangaroo stopped hobbling for a second to look at the eagle. "You're right", he said and started jumping around even more wildly. 

The "Hyah hyah!" - grew louder and finally reached them. "Hyah, where is my food?" 

"I - I don't have it." The kangaroo started chewing on some leaves just to have something to do. The hyena stepped closer. "What does that mean, you don't have it?" 

"It means he does not possess it." This came from the eagle. The kangaroo rested an admiring glance on the bird, while the hyena rolled her eyes. "Oh no, he's getting philosophical. Kangaroo..." The kangaroo had now eliminated almost all the leaves on the clearing. "Yes...?" 

She stopped in front of him. Erect on her hind legs, she was still smaller than him; the kangaroo, though, felt like the size of an ant under her glowing green eyes. "I - told - you - to - bring - me - that - food", she hissed. "And that means-" 

"Heh heh heh." 

The hyena started. Who had laughed like that? Certainly not the kangaroo, who had been staring into her eyes, hypnotized. Was it the eagle? But no, he was still sitting on that rock, lost in his own greatness. 

"Heh heh heh." She could now make out the laugh's direction, its owner was somewhere in the bushes behind the kangaroo. "Catch me if you can", it said, now, and started a terribly annoying game of hide-and-seek by running right and left as fast as it could, still hidden by the bushes. The kangaroo, fixing his stare on the bushes as well, became aware that there were still some leaves left to chew on, which he immediately began to do for distraction. What the hyena always did to him was really unnerving. 

The hyena, meanwhile, imitated every move of the unknown attacker, running breathless after a short while. She stopped near the eagle's rock. "I know who you are, fox", she said, tired of his game. "Show up." 

The fox appeared, a contented grin on his face, his eyes ever so wise and all-knowing, while also cunning. "You keep surprising me, hyena", he said in a quiet, mysterious voice, an amused glow in his eye. "How did you know it was me?" 

"Your laugh?" she suggested and walked off to a small pond some feet away from them. She was thirsty. 

The eagle had given up his superior expression and opened both eyes to study the fox. "How are you? You look thin." 

"I get along. Though I still couldn't find mother fox." Some tears fell on the ground in front of the eagle's rock. "Every time I get a little closer the tiger comes between us." 

"But I'm sure you helped many animals, didn't you?" The hyena asked in a very... cynical tone. "So many poor, ignorant animals who profited from your great intelligence." 

"One can say it like that", the fox replied, flattered, once more not having noticed her irony. It was always the same... 

"And did you paint your mother's picture into the soil in front of every animal you met?" the kangaroo joined in. This was something he knew how to do, because they asked these questions every night, and every night they heard the same answers. There was something like a comforting regularity in this, because one could never be surprised negatively. 

"Yes, I did. And everyone told me that they hoped I would find her someday." The fox smiled. Words like those always gave him hope. 

"Good", the hyena said and sniffed into the damp night air. Actually, now it was time for the old tiger to make his appearance. He was seldom late. 

"Growl", the old tiger announced and walked onto the clearing. "Hello fox", he rasped. He always seemed to be kind of breathless. "What a pity I cannot kill you right now. But it is the hour of our coming together, and we promised not to do each other harm." 

"Will you try in the following days?" the fox asked. 

"Yes." 

"And in the following months, and years?" the fox asked. 

"Yes." 

"Good." The fox smiled, and so did all the others. "Otherwise it wouldn't be the same."   



End file.
